Month: February 2016

Well, there goes my theory or my action plan to blog every single day for 30 days and turn it into a habit. Some weeks go by great and getting everything in the way you want to works out…other weeks turn into a crazy topsy-turvy mess and before you know it you’ve forgotten the write.

Still talking about Chronic Pain and that is the main reason I neglected my daily posts. My own chronic pain threw me a curve ball and I missed it. But this morning I’m feeling better and “on game” so I give you some more info regarding chronic pain.

I looked up chronic pain and came up with “chronic illness” at http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Chronic_Illness.aspx. This article gives the history of the sickness and the rise of death in the early years. In developed countries, “epidemiological transition” was experienced and “a shift in the disease burden from high rates of death from acute, parasitic, infectious diseases, and short life expectancy to longer life expectancy and high rates of chronic diseases.

Modern scientific medicine was developed due to the use of antiseptic surgery, the development of accurate diagnostic technologies — all advances in medical science. The basis of medical practice and medical approach to dealing with disease came from the “germ theory of sickness.” Reducing infectious disease generated enthusiasm for a cure that would be found for all diseases. The focus of medical science turned to the pursuit of “magic bullets” of medicine or drugs that would miraculously heal diseases.

The medical model of disease concludes there is a sharp and clear distinction between illness and health, based on the belief that sickness can be identified by diagnostic tests and proved by physicians. Acute, infectious diseases’ basis assumes diseases have specific causes and clearly distinguishing characteristics…they can be healed by medical therapies (Mishler 1981).

This report continues with the development with modern medicine and the rise of chronic illness. For just a taste of what this report is about, I’ve written the previous paragraphs for you. However, I’m hoping to have an article on here within the next few days that give detail to the onset of chronic illness up to today’s living with chronic illness.

Chronic pain can put you down in seconds and I believe that is what happened to me these last few days. Another factor of Chronic pain is lack of sleep. I would fall asleep while someone was talking to me and realized it was time for “rest!”

Share your experiences with pain and how you deal with the days of needed rest. Until next time, I hope your pain does not control you, but that you control your pain.

So far nobody has found my blog post and I really haven’t shared it with anyone yet, but hoping the keywords will bring visitors sooner than later.

Chronic Pain is a Pain in the (fill in the blank on the title) or fill in YOUR Chronic Pain area! It’s in your lower back, upper back, travels down your legs, is in your legs, your feet, your hands, shoulders, neck, head…you name it and most people will share the same pain you do.

So, what do you do about your Chronic Pain? We mentioned chiropractors, pain medicines, and therapy. But I have another option for you. There is a pain organization that helps almost every type of pain a person may have. It’s the U.S. Pain Foundation. If you go to the site (http://www.IntheFaceofPain.com) you will find a ton of information, resources, and help with your pain.

Write your story for them and they will send you information to help you in the form of resources, options for pain relief, and many more interesting and informative pamphlets for you, the pain sufferer. You’ll also receive a “Pain Warrior” bracelet to wear and let people know you are a Chronic Pain sufferer. Who knows, it may catch the attention of a fellow pain sufferer and you can share this information with them.

And if for some reason, you are not able to get on the computer to check out the website, but have a question, comment to me (below this post) and I will look up the answer for you. I joined the Advocacy Group for US Pain to help others with Chronic Pain find ways to deal with their pain every day. It would be my pleasure to help you or guide you to the right person for help.

It isn’t necessary to live with Chronic Pain all by yourself. You have people, support groups, and me, who will help you find a doctor for coping with pain. Plus I’ve thought of starting a Chronic Pain group to meet once a week or once a month so we can get to know each other and share our stories about pain and how we cope with it. You never know what other pain sufferers share that you will benefit from!

Those meetings will begin when it stays lighter in the evenings. I’m not crazy about driving in the dark and some of you may feel the same way. But keep a look out on my blog page for the date of the first meeting, place, and time. We may have several meetings in different locations so you wont’ have to drive so far.

I didn’t get to write my blog yesterday, but I hope you will check it out today. We are beginning a journey with fellow pain sufferers to stamp pain out and learn to live with it.

Until tomorrow, thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a “dry” day in the flood of water pouring down out there!

Take care,

Carolyn

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Today, here at the NC coast, we have a sunny cccccold day! Frost on the ground looks like snow, but it isn’t. Although there were plenty of predictions of snow in the last week, white flakes of happiness did not fall from the sky.

Starting today, I am going to write about a topic for 30 days and then change to a new topic. Not sure if there is 30 days of writing for each topic…but we’ll take our chances!

Chronic Pain. The topic for today gears toward the millions of Americans who wake up each morning in chronic pain which means they experienced:

1- Stiffness and getting out of bed was difficult 2- Difficulty walking once they got out bed 3- rolling over and almost falling out of bed 4- pain gathering the items for to make coffee

There is couple who live across the street from us who are very nice and jovial. She always has a smile on her face and he has a mischievous grin – likes he’s thinking of a joke to play on somebody. They both walk with 2 canes each. He has had MS for many years and I’m not sure what her problems involve — I know they are in pain and walk slowly.

Yet, they proceed with their daily routines — nothing stops their goals for the day. And although they move slowly, they are determined to get from point A to point B. There is one difference between them and me…they know when to take a break. I tend to keep going until my back screams at me with excruciating pain and I finally stop what I am doing. But they know their limitations and work around them.

Chronic pain is difficult to explain to someone who has never experienced it. Some people may strain their backs and rest for a few days, then they are up and about doing what they did before. Or they may develop a muscle strain from overdoing an activity, take muscle relaxers and ibuprofen and within a week or two they are back to work. These are not cases of chronic pain.

Chronic pain is exactly as it sounds: chronic means: constant, continuingalongtimeorrecurringfrequently and most of know what pain means:adistressingsensationinaparticularpartofthebody. When you put these two together you have a “constant distressing sensation in a particular part of the body.”

Some pain may be relieved with a trip to the chiropractor, acupuncture, or other holistic measures of treatment. I’ve tried everything from the chiropractor to physical therapy to bed rest to pain meds. It became such an ordeal with my back, I was home more days then I was at work. At that time I knew I was not able to work like I use to: pulling or pushing a cart of patient charts to the filing room to be filed (and some of these charts weighed 10 pounds!), sitting at the front desk for hours registering patients, and by mid-afternoon I was done for the day. I could barely walk, sit, or stand.

How many readers have experienced similar symptoms at the beginning of the onset of your chronic pain? I would love to hear your story and I’m sure others would be interested too. Until tomorrow…Carolyn

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Alrighty now! Day 3 and working toward making my morning routine of getting up at 5:ooam and writing a post a HABIT!!!

I hope everyone is either sleeping peacefully or having their first cup of coffee and getting ready for a brand new day. I’d make coffee but I don’t want the dogs to start whining and wake Rick up…plus I have a bottle of water to get through the next couple of hours.

Lots of curious things happened yesterday! I received a job offer from this gentleman with a list of expectations that almost choked me, much less a horse. (I believe he thought I was a novice and wouldn’t know what to charge for everything he asked for.) He “expected” a blog of 2400 words, a free report to go with the blog, and a press release. In between those expectations he expected me to know how to lead prospects through his website, write professionally and a couple of things I can’t remember – too early.

After going through the pricing guides, estimating the hours it would take for research and writing and I gave him my fee. Haven’t heard anything back and probably won’t. He appeared to be demanding in the post, but he’s probably a really nice man and knows what he wants and expects. The thing is he didn’t give me an email for me to contact him privately so I had to give him the fee on Linked In. Well, I learned one thing…I didn’t just say $500 because I eagerly wanted the job. I really thought it through and gave him the price according to the time it would take to write everything up.

I checked his website out and it appears legit…it’s a power drink of sorts for nutrition and losing or maintaining weight. Each picture showed a t gorgeous girl in tight work-out clothes showing what this product did for her. But I don’t remember seeing any guys in the ad???

Oh well, the first one may have gotten away, but I did work on other stuff yesterday – the Social Media Expert course for one. It was a waste of time because the first recording was selling the course, which I realized at the end of the first recording. But no, it wasn’t a waste – I realized there are a LOT of social media sites out there and he gave us 4 to sign up for. I’m already signed up on all of them but I’m going to sign up a new account with Facebook to promote my business as a writer.

With all that said, I went to bed early and getting up this morning was a cinch! On my way to my first “habit!” As I go through these 30 days I’ll share the way I feel when I get up and if it gets harder or easier to get in the office to write a post. Maybe something I share will help you work toward a habit you’ve been trying to start, but (like me) would shut off the alarm and go back to sleep.

That’s it for now fellow writers…I hope you have a great day of writing and where ever you are, I hope you are warm. It’s COLD here but suppose to be back around 65 next week which is PROPER beach weather!

Take care working toward your habit! Lots of positive energy being sent your way!

Carolyn

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After 10 days of trying to figure out how to create a great website, I’ve decided to wait and save money for a professional’s touch. I started reading the WordPress for Dummies 5 in 1 book that is almost 3 inches thick last night when I went to bed. There is a way I might be able to create a decent-looking website – if that is all I want to get done. But I can’t spend all the time I have writing and learning to work on the site.

So, now that decision is made, a huge burden has lifted from my shoulders and I can do what I love to do – write! It is 5:21am and beginning today I plan to get up at the same time every morning to write. If I only write for 15 minutes a day, it’s more than what I’ve been doing over the past several months. And getting up every morning at the same time – spending that time writing – will turn into a habit. That is my goal!

Habits are a hard part of our psyche…whether they are good habits to improve ourselves or bad habits to break and improve ourselves…it takes commitment and discipline to form a good habit. In fact it takes 30 days of the same routine until it becomes a habit.

My mentor for this objective is my daughter. She has been getting up every morning for the last 8 years to work on her writing, editing, and managing. She works at home and commits to an 8 hour (or more) workday. She takes breaks, a lunch break, and then back to work. This same child, who was hard as heck to wake up on weekends made a commitment and stuck to it.

Although she is going through some “stuff” right now…you know the stuff life throws at you when you least expect it… she still maintains a schedule or routine for her life. She doesn’t know it or maybe she does, but she’s my inspiration for writing for the last 4 years.

When I went on disability, I needed an outlet other than watching TV, knitting, and cross stitching. So I went back to school online for my Associate’s Degree in Healthcare Management. It was great! I loved going back to school! But then instead of 1 subject per month it jumped to 4 subjects in 1 month. At first I felt this was necessary for me to complete the degree and worked my butt off to stay caught up. But then I became sick. My chronic back pain grew worse and I found myself resting more than studying.

I was one essay behind and the instructor gave me until the next week to catch up. Now that was generous of her, but now I had three essays to write in one week. The pressure got to me, I became sicker, and then quit. It really sucks too because I carried a 4.0 average for the 8 months I was in the program. When I spoke to one of the counselors at the school about my situation, she suggested I just write up essays to get back on track. “Don’t worry about whether they are good or not, just write them and you’ll be back where you should be.”

Needless to say, this startled and hurt me. I’m not the student who works “just to get by.” I put my heart and soul into my work and give every assignment my best. There was no way I could write a mediocre essay “just to catch up.” And deal with a chronic back pain issue to boot.

I quit. I hate it because it seems I quit things I start all the time – especially in my adult life. But there was no other option. It would take me forever to catch up and that would only add stress to my pain. Funny thing was nobody at this online school seemed concerned that a 4.0 student was quitting. Until a few months later when I received weekly emails asking me to return and complete the work toward my Associate’s Degree.

The other reason I could justify my quitting was I was turning 60 in a couple of months and by the time I finished the course, I would be 62. What company was going to hire a Healthcare Manager for a doctor’s office at the age of 62 – just 3 years before retirement? I just didn’t see it happening.

As soon as the decision was made, the burden left me and I could breathe again. And I began to write and read about writing and haven’t looked back. Well, that’s a lie, I look back many times…heck, I just looked back to tell you about my attempt to finally get my Associate’s Degree.

But you know what I mean. I don’t regret the decision and now I am doing something new and exciting! Along with this blog, I’ve got a book in the works…so if I’m not posting a blog, you’ll know I’m working on the book.

Well my time limit is up and I begin my next project as per my morning schedule. I hope you have a great day today and maybe something I’ve said will help you with a decision you are trying to make. Whatever the case, take care and blog you later!